Prince Charles and Camilla begin annual Cornwall and Devon visit

The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall began their annual visit to Cornwall and Devon on Monday.

Accompanied by Mayor David Bryan and his wife Annette, the Royal couple visited the Looe RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) Station, taking some time to speak to the parents and sister of local teenager, Ollie Naismith who died in a car accident in 2008. The Looe community raised £84,000 to buy a new lifeboat dedicated to the teen.

A plaque celebrating their historic visit to Looe was revealed next to the town’s new river pontoon which Charles and Camilla officially opened.

Charles then visited the Looe’s fish market and met some of the men who obtained jobs in the fishing industry after training with the ‘Get Into Fishing Programmes’ funded by the Princes Trust.

‘Get Into Fishing’ gives local unemployed young people the skills, qualifications and training they needed to get into the fishing industry.

One of the young men Sam works as a foreman at the market: “I absolutely love the job I’m doing and I couldn’t be happier. The Trust really helped me and I wouldn’t have been able to apply for this job if it wasn’t for the course we did.”

He added: “The Prince was very easy to talk to and was really interested in what we were doing. It was a great way to say thank you for the support of his Trust.”

The Royal couple met stallholders in the quayside market, as well as the local firefighters and youth organisations.

Before leaving the port, Charles was presented with a Kukri Ghurka tie pin and his wife received a Kukri brooch containing her coat of arms. Both were handcrafted at Looe Silvercraft.

Camilla embarked on a solo visit to Cornish Orchards, at Westnorth Manor Farm. There the Duchess took a tour of the processing units with owner Andy Atkinson. The Duchess sampled Cornish Gold, the company’s flagship product and was given a hamper of ciders produced at the farm. The farm is part of the Duchy Estate and dates back to the 1600s.

The final visit of the day was to Trewithen Dairy, which celebrates its 20th birthday this year. Camilla was presented with a hamper full of Trewithen Dairy goodies, before cutting the ‘Trewy the Cow’ birthday cake with a sword.

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